The Girl Who Cried #Hashtag

No longer can I sit idly by watching you people--and you know who you are--commit your daily crimes against humanity. It's time for an intervention. Sit down and settle in. We're going to have a little chat about your hashtag abuse problem.

For reasons I cannot understand, the advent of Twitter and Instagram seems to have given people carte blanche to go apeshit nutty with the hashtag. I know you're probably feeling drunk on power (or maybe just feeling drunk, period) as you steer the social bus, but it's time to stop.

Here's the thing. I'm not sure what you're saying/doing on Twitter, or Instagram for that matter, that would warrant the use of 4-9 hashtags. You only have 140 characters to begin with. #Seriously.

I don't need a hashtag dissertation on a photo of your feet (#feet #grass #summer #love #yay #woohoo #IHaveToenails #TheColorGreen). And your Instagram shot of a cityscape followed by a stream of #sunshine #sky #tree #building #sidewalk #people #humans #society #BananaHammock makes you look like you a) don't know what you're doing, b) are desperate for attention, c) have hashtag Tourettes. So what is it?

I believe it was Coco Chanel who once offered a sage tidbit of advice to all the ladies of the world. Noting our propensity for wearing all the sparkly things we own at the same time, Coco advised that before leaving the house, women should look in the mirror and remove one piece of jewelry. The same advice applies to hashtagging. When you abuse hashtags, you look like this guy...who wears all the scarves.

Moderation is a good thing. Give it a go. You might like it! If you're creating good content, people will find you. If not, pounding them over the head with the pound sign isn't going to do a gosh darn thing. Except inspire ranty Monday night blog posts.

In the meantime, let's leave the 'tag teaming to the professionals, shall we?